Tuesday, June 22, 2010

While not napping, eating, hot tubbing, or strolling the decks aboard the ship, we indulged in a variety of activities: afternoon trivia, crossword puzzles, and scrabble.

The body didn't get much exercise but the mind got a workout.

I will gladly delve into a furious game of trivia or an (early to mid-week) crossword puzzle. But when in comes to scrabble, I am a lost cause. Fortunately, I'm so bad that I only had to endure one sorry round before the family took pity and abandoned the game completely.

But trivia, oh trivia is another story entirely. Probably because it's a team sport. We played boys against girls and well, as I recounted to Eric last night, the girls STOMPED the competition*. I was intent on wearing my gold medal around the ship 24-7 but thought it might be excessively tacky.

Here are a few of the questions. Can you guess the answers?

What is the only mammal that cannot jump?
Sofia is the capital of what country?
How many gears does a unicycle have?
What country invented the baseball glove?
Where are the smallest muscles in the body located?
Mary Quant invented which fashion item?
How many countries are in Great Britain?
What does Terra Cotta mean?
What disease comes from the Italian words 'bad air'?
Where is Gabriel Garcia Marquez from?

Answers to come shortly.

*Eh, so that might have been a bit of an exaggeration. The two times we beat the gentlemen, I think we won by a margin of 1.

So maybe it wasn't a landslide victory.

Update:

I should have mentioned that I remembered these specific questions because I got most of them wrong. I got the miniskirt question and the number of countries in Great Britain, but only because I managed to convince my teammates that Scotland was a duchy or kingdom, rather than an actual country. Don't ask me where I thought that tidbit up.

On the the answers:

What is the only mammal that cannot jump? The Elephant.Sofia is the capital of what country? Bulgaria. How many gears does a unicycle have? None*. What country invented the baseball glove? Canada, eh. Where are the smallest muscles in the body located? The ear. Mary Quant invented which fashion item? The miniskirt.How many countries are in Great Britain? Three: England, Scotland, Whales; however, there are four countries in the United Kingdom as the official name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. What does Terra Cotta mean? Baked earth. What disease comes from the Italian words 'bad air'? Malaria. Where is Gabriel Garcia Marquez from? Columbia.

*So the unicycle question was hotly contested in our group. We didn't like the question or the answer. Our reckoning was that a unicycle must have at least one gear else you couldn't pedal. Doesn't matter if you can't change gears, you still have to have at least one.